The Alternate Life of Miss D Meadowes & Mr S Black
by MentalSarcasm
Summary: A series of short fics exploring the lives of Dorcas Meadowes and Sirius Black, if they had a chance to live their lives fully. Lots of AU, lots of DMxSB, it might skip around a little bit time wise but I'll try to keep it all in order.


Dorcas Meadowes, twenty nine years old, clothes designer, Gryffindor alumnus and former Order member, stared at her reflection in the mirror and nearly cried at what she saw. She knew that being pregnant would ruin her figure, that was something that Lily and Alice had both complained about during their pregnancies, but she didn't realise it would disappear this quickly! Nearly four months in and she already felt hideous. As if morning sickness wasn't bad enough, combined with the complete exhaustion that would wash over her in the early afternoon, she was definitely already fed up with being pregnant.

Behind her she heard a slightly irritated sigh. After several years together they had managed to come up with a system of sharing bathroom and bedroom space that meant they were both ready for things on time, but this time Sirius had been ready for ten minutes and Dory was still trying to work out what to wear. And she had been preparing for this for most of the week, ever since Lily had invited them round for lunch! Sirius had found her a potion in the Diagon Alley apothecary that helped alleviate morning sickness so she had managed to have a long lie in that morning feeling merely nauseous as opposed to hugging the toilet. And she had had a very long shower, marvelling at how much more cheerful she felt when she wasn't feeling ill. But now she had been trying to decide what to wear for a good thirty minutes and she was no closer. Behind her, lying back against the pillows with a distinctly bored look on his face, Sirius Black sighed again.

"**Sirius will you PLEASE stop sighing."**

"**Then will you PLEASE just pick a top to wear."**

"**I can't!"**

"**Why not?"**

"**Because I look so fat!"**

It came as more of a wail than a shout. She liked to look nice, she liked knowing that people were looking at her and thought she looked good. Right now she felt like a blimp. Her reflection in the mirror blurred as her eyes filled with unshed tears. A few seconds later she felt Sirius' arms wrap around her from behind, his head resting lightly against hers.

"**You don't look **_**fat**_** Dory, you look **_**pregnant**_**], there's a difference."**

"**Oh really?"**

"**Of course really. When you're fat it's because you've been eating too many cakes and haven't done any exercise. And when you're pregnant..."** His hands slid down and rested on her bump, the bump that was causing all the problems, **"when you're pregnant it's because you're carrying another little life around in you."**

She sighed slightly and leaned back against his chest, blinking away the tears. That was another problem with pregnancy, mood swings. She thought mood swings as part of menstruation were bad but they were nothing compared to pregnancy mood swings. She cried when she spilt a mug of tea. She cried when she couldn't remember what she was going to cook for dinner. She cried when she couldn't find her keys. She had cried more in the past two months than she had done in the previous two years. It was another thing she was fed up with. But she had to be absolutely sure...

"**I really don't look fat?"**

"**No you look like a hippo."**

She poked his ribs with her elbow but she felt his warm breath against her neck when he laughed, refusing to remove his hands from her stomach.

"**Stop stressing. You look-...WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"**

Sirius leapt away as if he had been stung, all Dory could do was gawp at her bump in shock. That had been the weirdest feeling she had ever felt, and the fact that Sirius had felt it was well was just as surprising.

"**That's...that's normal, right? That's not you about to go in to scarily early labour...please tell me you're not about to go in to scarily early labour..."**

"**I think that...I think it was a kick."**

She looked back down at her bump, standing very still to see if she could feel it again but there was nothing, as if Sirius' shout had scared it.

"**Is it doing it?"**

"**No, I think you scared it."**

Sirius moved closer to her again, putting one hand back on her bump, his other arm sliding around her shoulders. They stayed that way for a full minute, both almost hopping with barely restrained impatience. And then they both felt it again, a tiny movement that suggested that their son or daughter was stretching or kicking or twitching in it's sleep.

"**That's pretty incredible."**

"**I know. What do you think it's going to be?"**

"**A Gryffindor."**

"**No, Sirius, I meant a boy or a girl."**

"**Could be twins so we have one of each."**

"**Oh don't you dare even joke about that."**


End file.
